^{Bishop Sproxton believes that passing on the law to legalise euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide will increase the rate of suicide in Australia. Photo: Iceberg Media.}

By Amanda Murthy

Australian Catholic Youth Festival (ACYF) pilgrims attended a workshop hosted by Perth Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton on Sunday 8 December 2019, where he spoke about the sanctity of life, describing it as a “reflection of God’s love”.

Throughout the session, Bishop Sproxton explored the topic of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, sharing those present, some of the dangers that will emerge with Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.

^{ACYF Youth pilgrims learned of some of the risks involved in practising Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide and why medical attention and love in community is the better option at a workshop presented by Bishop Sproxton. Photo: Iceberg Media.}

On Tuesday 10 December, legislation allowing terminally ill people to end their own lives passed the West Australian Parliament, making it the second State after Victoria to allow voluntary euthanasia.

“(As Catholics, we believe that) Life is a gift, to be protected and promoted, especially for those least able to care for themselves,” Bishop Sproxton expressed.

“To people of faith, life is the fundamental gift for a person, in fact, the gift of God’s love.

“Human life is also eternal: death and dying are normal human moments in life marking the transition from mortal to eternal life - The experience of suffering and pain is also part of the human condition,” he reminded those present.

Bishop Sproxton went on to state that medical science has made great progress in Western societies, to the extent that the average life span of men and women has increased since the early twentieth century, (perhaps by another 20 years).

“And this has meant that there are many more types of disease appearing in the population because we live longer, but even despite this fact, medicine is finding more cures and life is being prolonged,” he added.

Along with this progress in medical science and new treatments, Bishop Sproxton cited that with society is becoming more secularised and materialistic, people are finding it more difficult to find meaning in old age and death.

“They question whether or not they have the right to eradicate suffering by resorting to euthanasia.”

Noting while physical suffering, pain and dying can be very lonely experiences, Bishop Sproxton is convinced that medical care is now able to provide better management of pain.

“Good palliative care, if made available, will bring relief and increased comfort. Added to good palliative care, the dying person needs to be surrounded by the people closest to them to be reassured, accompanied and loved,” Bishop Sproxton explained.

“This adds an essential human element: to share in their journey of acceptance of death and preparing for the transition from earthly life to eternal life.

“Therefore on one hand we must never deliberately and directly take anyone’s life, but on the other hand, neither are we obliged to keep people alive indefinitely,” he added.

Added to good palliative care, Bishop Sproxton said that the dying person needs to be surrounded by the people closest to them to be reassured, accompanied and loved.

“This adds an essential human element: to share in their journey of acceptance of death and preparing for the transition from earthly life to eternal life.

“Therefore on one hand we must never deliberately and directly take anyone’s life, but on the other hand, neither are we obliged to keep people alive indefinitely.”

Offering some of the realities of Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, Bishop Sproxton expressed that people often have the misconception that euthanasia guarantees a ‘peaceful death’ and is therefore compassionate.

However in reality, Bishop Sproxton stated that euthanasia can cause many negative risks such as wrongful death, it could be a faulty process even in the ‘best circumstances’ there is a high complication rate.

“These complications include difficulty in swallowing medication (less than nine per cent), vomiting (less than 10 per cent), death takes a long time (up to seven days less than four per cent), failure to induce coma and the patient wakes up (less than 1.3 per cent).

“The assumption that death will be gentle is not supported by the facts in many cases.”

^{More than 100 Australian Catholic Youth Festival pilgrims attended a workshop hosted by Perth Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton, who shared the Church’s stance on Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted suicide. Photo: Iceberg Media.}

Other risks include bracket creep, a threat to maintain scope of practice, a change in doctor-patient relationship, elder abuse, further marginalisation of the vulnerable, and lack of focus on access to specialist palliative care.

“Another risk patient’s face surrounding the issue of Euthanasia is suicide confusion -

Eight people in Australia die each day by suicide, and we invest heavily in major suicide prevention and counselling programs like Beyond Blue and LifeLine,” Bishop Sproxton remarked.

“This will introduce an acceptable kind of suicide – ‘white homicide’ – that is approved and even funded by the State. 

“How will this affect suicide rates in Australia?,” Bishop Sproxton added.

Bishop Sproxton concluded the informative workshop session by re-affirming the Church’s stance that Euthanasia is not the answer to the diagnosis of a terminal illness, adding that while the fear of pain and suffering is real, the anguish that is felt by the person who is dying is much deeper.

“The deeper need is (for the sick) to be helped and loved.

“What a sick person needs, besides medical care, is love, the human and supernatural warmth with which the sick person can and ought to be surrounded by all those close to him or her, from their parents and children, doctors and nurses,” Bishop Sproxton concluded.